Books
We asked our teams to vote for their favourite book in their own language and here are some of their choices.
Die Insel des Zweiten Gesichts. Aus den Angewandten Erinnerungen des Vigolei
Albert Vigoleis Thelen (1903-1989)
It is impossible to give a concise summary of this meandering novel that's been likened to Cervantes's Don Quixote, not only because of its length, but also because of its baroque beauty. It may be almost 1,000 pages long (edited down by the publisher from the original 1,300), but don't let this put you off; every hour spent is well worth it and truly rewarding. It is uniquely humorous, engrossingly contemptuous of the political climate before Hitler's rise to power in the 1930s, and an unrivalled linguistic masterpiece. It is totally unlike anything else, a tissue woven of many strands, full of irony and sarcasm and yet deeply human(istic) and erudite, and could easily be the funniest book ever written in German.
It is anti-war and anti-fascist - and it has proved impossible to translate into English. Thelen has by far the largest vocabulary of any German author (including Goethe, who normally takes the statistical lead), and as if that wasn't enough, he creates dozens of new words to convey particular nuances and shades of meaning or satire. He reveals himself as a true master of the language, you'll never catch him out using clichés or formulaic phrases, he pulls all the registers - and more.
Vigo/Vigoleis, the author's alter ego, a determined opponent of Hitler and his Nazi regime, and his multilingual wife (Beatrice from Basle) are urgently called to Majorca to the deathbed of Beatrice's brother (Zwingli, aka Don Helvecio). Only he isn't dying, as they discover when they arrive, but totally broke and sexually ensnared by local prostitute who is making his life a misery. As a loving sister, Beatrice pays off his debts, and thus begin the unusual island adventures of the German-Swiss couple, their many struggles and encounters with the most bizarre collection of characters, indigenous and other, on Majorca. They are close to starvation some of the time, seek shelter in a remote farmhouse that acts as a brothel for the military while doubling up as a smuggler's den, but they are masters of the art of survival. Vigo is a writer and typist (he types up Robert Graves's I Claudius), an inventor (of an 'auto-heaving' brassiere, for example), as well as a tourist guide (who makes up his own version of the history of Majorca for the hordes of regime-supporting German tourists). They befriend aristocrats and literary figures, Jews and dubious emigrants, and make enemies of the German consul and other Nazis, while reflecting on the moral deprivation of the racist ideology and its dire consequences. When the Civil War erupts in Spain, Vigoleis and Beatrice manage to get out just in time. They almost get caught by the Gestapo, and finally find a safe haven in Portugal, with the mystic and author Teixeira de Pascoaes.
Although the book was finished in 1947, Adenauer's Germany was not yet ready to publish something that so openly ridiculed Hitler's Germany and his appeal for the masses ... So it was not until 1953 that a publisher was found. Thelen (who worked as a translator from Dutch and Portuguese) was largely unknown, but won the Fontane prize within a year. Perhaps not surprisingly, it is still not available in English. Apparently a translation has been done, but no publisher has been bold enough to take the plunge. More surprisingly though, in the German-speaking world, even now very few people know of the book or its author. They don't know what they are missing. It has rightly been called the most "unjustly undervalued book ... among the three best books of the post-war period" (Dr. Jürgen Pütz).
French and Spanish translations are rumoured to exist. Read all about the recently published Dutch translation on: http://www.vigoleis.de/content/neews/dichter/3/index.htm
Translated by Wil Boesten: Het eiland van het tweede gezicht.
A trilingual plaque (Spanish, Catalan, German) has been put up in Thelen's honour on Majorca, where he resided between 1931-35.
Dutch
De eetclub (The Dinner Club), Saskia Noort
I bought this book at the airport to read on a flight. De eetclub (The Dinner Club) gripped me from the word go, and the flight was way too short. I eventually ended up going to sleep far too late one evening, because I just had to find out who'd done it! Yes, the book is a literary thriller. The book's main character is Karen, and the story is told from her perspective. She is a happily married woman with two children. For the sake of the children, she and her husband decide to move from Amsterdam to a village in the neighbourhood, where she doesn't know anyone. At first she feels lonely, but then she meets Hanneke and, through her, three other women. Soon they become friends, and the dining club is set up; husbands are introduced and a close circle of friends is formed. All's well and good. Or is it? Unexpectedly, Evert, one of the men, sets fire to his beautiful house with his wife and children inside. It's said to be suicide, brought on by despair over his ailing business. But was it? As the dining club unravels after this event, it becomes more and more apparent that this friendship was not as unconditional as it seemed. Some people stood to gain from Evert's death. As Karen is drawn in ever further, she faces a choice: to keep up appearances or uncover the truth. Apart from the story, I love the way the writer uses the Dutch language - it's 'strak' (tight), as we'd say in Dutch. The words she chooses and her usage of them are just right, and your eyes zoom over the page - well mine did anyway. Unfortunately, I don't think this book
has been translated, yet, but maybe it will be some day, in which case I don't want to reveal too much. Instead I'd read another of her books, Terug naar de kust (Back to the Coast), which I also enjoyed very much.
Mijn vrijheid (My Freedom), Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Another book I'd recommend is Mijn vrijheid (My freedom) the autobiography of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She came to the Netherlands as a refugee from Somalia, worked very hard to find herself a place in Dutch society and help others, studied political sciences and ended up being elected for parliament. I found it fascinating to read about many of today's issues from her perspective. I was brought up as a Christian tradition, she in the Islamic tradition, and the energy and drive of this woman are just amazing. I have tremendous respect for her. This book has been translated into English.